Porsche posts mid-year profit

Porsche AG can look back on a very successful first half of 2014. Deliveries covering the period from the beginning of January to the end of June rose by eight percent compared to the same period last year to 87,803 vehicles. Revenue went up in the first six months by 16 percent to 8.2 billion euros. Operating profit grew by eight percent to 1.4 billion euros, which is equivalent to a return on sales of 17 percent. Jobs as at June 30, reached the record number of 21,326 employees. This is 18 percent or 3,178 persons more than a year ago.

Lutz Meschke, member of the Executive Board Finance and IT at Porsche AG, emphasised the efficient organisation and the high cost awareness within the company. This is the only way to sustainably achieve a return on sales of at least 15 percent. In his outlook, Meschke pointed out the rising burden caused by the ambitious investment programme which Porsche is implementing in its Strategy 2018.

“The resulting depreciation and rising labour costs pose an ever increasing burden on our results. Add to this the very high expenditure for research and development, in particular in connection with reducing fleet carbon emissions,” he said.

Despite all this, Meschke confirmed that Porsche intends to achieve at least the same level of results in fiscal year 2014 as in the previous year.

The extensive investment programme was visible at all locations in the first half of 2014. In February, the sports car manufacturer opened a comprehensive factory in Leipzig with its own paint shop and body assembly line for production of the Macan. Porsche invested over 500 million euros here. Total investments at Porsche’s main plant, which includes a new body assembly line, will amount to over 700 million euros in the coming years.

Chairman of the Executive Board of Porsche AG, Matthias Mueller, said the sports car manufacturer is keeping solidly to its course of value-creating growth.

“We are investing in ground-breaking future technologies such as the plug-in hybrid drive and in promising market segments,” Mueller said.

Mueller is convinced that Porsche is “absolutely on the right path with its enormous efforts”.